Lawsuit filed over child sex ring investigation

OLYMPIA (AP)  An unordained East Wenatchee pastor acquitted in the controversial Wenatchee child-sex-ring cases says a lawsuit filed against state and local officials is intended to show the accused were victims of a witch hunt.

"We're going to title it 'the great equalizer,' " Robby Roberson said Thursday.

"This is what we feel  this is not just a lawsuit, this is the great equalizer for those in the Wenatchee community who were accused and have been falsely imprisoned on all these charges. "

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Thurston County Superior Court on behalf of seven adults and three children who say their rights were violated by police and prosecutors in the Chelan and Douglas county cases.

Attorney Robert Van Siclen said he filed the case here to get a fair trial.

"It would not be wise to go in Chelan or Douglas counties with the political situation there," he said.

The complaint does not seek specific damages. However, a claim filed by some of the plaintiffs earlier this year asked for $80 million.

The lawsuit contends police tactics were flawed and that children were coerced into making statements against their parents and other adults.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Douglas and Chelan counties, correctional agencies in both counties, the city of Wenatchee and the state Department of Social and Health Services. Also named are Wenatchee police Detective Bob Perez and other individuals.

involved in the investigations.

Wenatchee police welcome the opportunity to defend their work in the case, said attorney Pat McMahon, who is representing the department.

"Children who were sexually raped and abused, and the law enforcement officers who did their job properly by protecting these children from sexual predators, see this lawsuit as an opportunity to expose in open court these plaintiffs and we anticipate that we will prevail," McMahon said Thursday.

He said a trial on the lawsuit will show crimes were committed and properly prosecuted.

"The entire checks and balances in our judicial system were in place and it went from the initial police investigation through trials and people pleading guilty and the system worked," McMahon said.

Officials with Douglas and Chelan counties could not immediately be reached to comment on the lawsuit. DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears declined comment, saying she hadn't seen the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Roberson and his wife, Connie, who were acquitted in December of charges that they had sex with children at their East Wenatchee church and home.

The other adult plaintiffs are Honnah Sims, who was acquitted last summer of child rape; her husband, Jonathan Sims, who was not charged; Donna Rodriguez and Karen Lopez, against who charges of child rape or molestation were dismissed; and Susan Everett, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes in exchange for dismissal of felony charges.

"These people have had their civil rights completely obliterated," said plaintiffs' attorney Van Siclen, who also represented some of those clients in their criminal cases.

"Their lives have literally been ruined. They have endured humiliating and expensive litigation that was not supported by the evidence."

Originally, 28 people charged with child rape and molestation in the Wenatchee area. Fourteen people pleaded guilty, five were convicted and charges were dismissed or greatly reduced against five others. Three people were acquitted, and one case is pending

Prosecutors alleged that dozens of children had been raped or molested since 1988 by two loosely organized sex rings in Wenatchee and nearby East Wenatchee.

The lawsuit accuses those involved in the investigation and prosecution with violating constitutional rights, interfering with parental rights, malicious prosecution, false arrest and false imprisonment.

In February, the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights, which was asked by Gov. Mike Lowry to look into the case, concluded there had been were no civil-rights violations.

Earlier this month, a 13-year-old girl who was a key witness at four of the trials recanted her testimony, saying she had never been molested. The girl said in an interview with The Associated Press that she lied initially because Perez, the lead investigator and for a time her foster father, pressured her to do so.

The girl's parents pleaded guilty to charges they abused two of their daughters, including her.

More Reading...

SEATTLE (AP) -- Jury selection was set to get under way today in the $100 million civil-rights lawsuit filed by four former defendants in the notorious Wenatchee child sex-ring cases. The case erupted in apple-growing country about 85 miles east of here in 1994-95, when ... [Read More...]

WENATCHEE (AP) - The city of Wenatchee and Douglas County will appeal a court ruling that reinstated part of a civil-rights lawsuit in the Wentachee child sex rings cases and ordered a new trial. In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the state Court of ... [Read More...]

SPOKANE (AP) -- The city of Wenatchee must pay more than $620,000 for withholding crucial documents during a lawsuit over its largely discredited investigations into an alleged child sex ring, a judge ruled Monday. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue vacated a jury's ... [Read More...]

SEATTLE (AP) - The judge in the lawsuit over the Wenatchee child sex rings investigation is expected to announce Monday whether he'll dismiss the bulk of the claims against the remaining defendants. As the trial stretches into its ninth week, Spokane County Superior ... [Read More...]

SEATTLE (AP) -- A psychiatrist testified in the Wenatchee child-sex rings lawsuit Friday that a key witness in the case was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in 1996 -- about the time she recanted her allegations. Dr. Donna Shaw said she evaluated ... [Read More...]